Four Cougars went to Fort Worth. Every one won in singles. Both doubles teams left unbeaten.
That is the cleanest reading of BYU’s Battle for the Boot weekend: eight singles victories and five doubles wins across three days of competition at the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center. The event did not award BYU a dual-match score or a team trophy. It did give the Cougars 13 individual results worth carrying into the final month of fall tennis.
Yuyun Chen led the group with three singles wins. Chelsea Bluestein and Cara Korhonen won twice each, and Sue Yan Tan added one. In doubles, Bluestein and Chen went 2-0 while Korhonen and Tan went 3-0.
The singles depth is useful. The doubles sweep is the part that should get coach Holly Hasler’s attention.
BYU’s Fort Worth result card
| Player or pair | Verified wins | What the official recap confirms |
|---|---|---|
| Yuyun Chen, singles | 3 | Most singles wins by a Cougar at the event |
| Chelsea Bluestein, singles | 2 | One of three Cougars with multiple singles wins |
| Cara Korhonen, singles | 2 | Closed with a straight-set win over Missouri |
| Sue Yan Tan, singles | 1 | Every member of the four-player group won in singles |
| Bluestein / Chen, doubles | 2 | Won Thursday and Friday; unbeaten for the weekend |
| Korhonen / Tan, doubles | 3 | Won all three days, including Saturday’s 6-1 finish |
The official BYU event record now marks the tournament completed and links the school’s recap. There is no WMT game file, box score or team standing because this was an individual fall event. Counting verified player and pair results is more honest than inventing a team finish.
BYU’s own report supplies the weekend totals and player win distribution. Opponent accounts fill in part of the score sheet, especially Saturday. They also expose one data-quality wrinkle: BYU and Missouri agree on the winners and straight-set shape of Chen’s and Korhonen’s closing matches, but they publish different game scores.
BYU lists Chen over Alba Salles Canudas 6-4, 6-3 and Korhonen over Leticia Bazan 6-4, 6-2. Missouri lists Chen 6-3, 6-3 and Korhonen 6-2, 6-4. We are not going to manufacture a tie-breaker between official school accounts. The verified conclusion is that both Cougars won in straight sets. The disputed game sequence stays disputed until a corrected draw or score sheet appears.
Chen gave BYU three days of the same answer
Chen’s three singles wins matter because of what came immediately before Fort Worth. She entered the ITA Mountain Regional as the seventh seed and lost her first main-draw match to Utah State’s Terezia Mlkva. Seeded status did not rescue the week.
Fort Worth was her chance to start over without waiting for the spring dual season. She did exactly that, winning once on each competition day according to BYU’s three-win total and tournament recap.
The Saturday win over Salles Canudas came in straight sets in both schools’ accounts. The exact games are in conflict, but neither version contains a lost set or a match tiebreak. That is a useful finish after a weekend in which Chen had already done enough to avoid making the last match carry the whole trip.
One fall result should not be inflated into a lineup guarantee. Chen did not win a team point, and the public recap does not identify every opponent or score from her first two victories. Still, a three-win response is better evidence than a vague claim that she “bounced back.” It shows the response on the court.
Chen also paired with Bluestein for two doubles wins. Purdue’s official account identifies one of them against Reese Frank and Ece Gencer. Purdue prints the score as 5-7 while naming Chen and Bluestein the winners, an internally reversed notation that should not be silently repaired. The winner is clear; the reliable exact score is not.
That leaves Chen with five victories across singles and doubles, the largest contribution in BYU’s four-player group.
Korhonen and Tan made the doubles question less theoretical
The How to Follow guide identified Korhonen and Tan as the pairing to watch after their run to the Mountain Regional semifinal. Fort Worth returned a stronger answer than another deep bracket label: they won on all three days.
Thursday established the pair. Friday removed the one-match caveat. Saturday gave them a closing score, a 6-1 win over Northwestern’s Philippa Farber and Aely Arai.
Fall doubles results do not lock a spring lineup. Coaches use these events to test return sides, communication and combinations. But three consecutive wins make experimentation more expensive. If Hasler separates Korhonen and Tan later, it will be to learn something specific, not because this pairing failed its Fort Worth test.
The progress is easier to see across the fall:
- Korhonen and Tan reached the USTA SoCal quarterfinal before a 7-5 loss.
- They reached the ITA Mountain Regional semifinal, surviving an 8-7 match along the way.
- They went 3-0 at the Battle for the Boot and finished with a 6-1 win.
Those are different formats and fields, so the score lines should not be stacked as if they came from one standings table. The common thread is simpler. The pair has now produced wins in three straight fall events and has handled both close sets and a one-sided finish.
Tan’s singles weekend was less complete. BYU credits her with one win, and Missouri reports Daria Budko beat her 6-3, 6-0 on Saturday. The doubles sweep does not erase that closing singles loss. It does show that Tan continued to add value after the individual result went the other way.
Bluestein’s weekend had value and one familiar loose end
Bluestein won twice in singles and twice with Chen. Four wins from one player make for a productive trip.
Her last documented singles match also points back to the question she carried out of the Mountain Regional. Missouri’s Irina Anghel beat Bluestein 7-6(6), 6-3. Bluestein was one tiebreak from changing the shape of the match, then did not force a third set.
That is not a reason to discard the two earlier wins. It is the useful edge of the result. Bluestein has already shown she can build a week: a semifinal at the USTA SoCal Championships, a regional quarterfinal and now two more wins in Fort Worth. The next gain is turning the tight opening set against a strong final-day opponent into a match that lasts longer.
The doubles side gave her a cleaner finish. She and Chen won both of their matches and left no loss to explain. Between the two BYU pairs, five doubles matches produced five wins.
A four-player travel group cannot simulate the six courts of a spring dual. It can, however, test whether BYU has two functioning pairs at the same time. Fort Worth says yes.
Thirteen wins do not equal a team victory
There is a temptation with fall tennis to add every win, compare totals from school recaps and declare a winner. The tournament did not publish that competition.
BYU’s 13 victories came from individual singles and doubles matches against a field that included Arizona, Houston, Illinois, LSU, Missouri, Nebraska, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Purdue, Rice, TCU and others listed by the host. Players moved through event-specific matchups rather than one BYU-versus-opponent dual.
The total still tells us three useful things:
- BYU did not rely on one player. All four won in singles.
- Chen produced the only three-win singles weekend in the Cougar group.
- BYU lost no doubles match across two pairings and five opportunities.
That is enough. Calling it a tournament championship would make the weekend sound bigger and less accurate at the same time.
What travels to Tempe
BYU’s next scheduled team event is the Thunderbird Invitational in Tempe, Arizona, beginning Friday, Oct. 30. The quick turnaround makes lineup choices more interesting than a broad momentum claim.
Chen should arrive with a reset already completed. Bluestein has another chance to convert a close first set late in an event. Korhonen and Tan have earned another look together unless the coaches decide the bigger need is testing them with new partners.
The rest of the roster also comes back into play. Sage Bergeson, who secured an NCAA singles place at the Mountain Regional, was not in BYU’s published four-player Fort Worth group. Neither were Bella Lewis, Sephi Sheng or Allegra and Angelique van der Walt. The Thunderbird Invitational can reconnect the small travel result with the larger spring roster.
Our Bergeson NCAA recap tracks the top-end singles result. The women’s tennis schedule has the remaining fall dates, and the roster keeps the full player group together.
Fort Worth did not settle BYU’s spring order. It narrowed one decision. Korhonen and Tan are no longer just an interesting doubles idea. After three more wins, they are the pair somebody else has to dislodge.
Sources and further reading
- BYU Athletics: completed event 25563 for the stable event ID, completed status, Fort Worth location and official recap link.
- BYU Athletics: Battle for the Boot recap for the eight singles wins, five undefeated doubles wins, player win distribution, Saturday results and Thunderbird Invitational next event.
- BYU Athletics: tournament preview for the four-player BYU travel group.
- Missouri Athletics: full Battle for the Boot results for opponent-side confirmation of Saturday’s four BYU singles matches and the disclosed score conflicts.
- Purdue Athletics: opening Battle for the Boot results for opponent-side confirmation of a Bluestein-Chen doubles victory and the source’s internally reversed score notation.
- TCU Athletics: tournament preview for the host venue, three-day competition setup and published field.
- BYU Brand: official colors and TCU Brand Central: official palette for the colors used in the original editorial hero.
- BYU Sport Nuts: Battle for the Boot follow guide, Mountain Regional recap, women’s tennis hub and schedule.
